Forgotten Legacy

I found Sunshine sitting in one of the libraries of the Crystal Castle, a quill scribing across some parchment. Sunset sat next to her, her horn occasionally lighting up and a small lump of crystal lighting with light before fading.

“Nope,” she said, crumpling a sheet of parchment and tossing it over her shoulder. I noticed that the wastebasket had long since overflowed.

“Which one of you two had the bright idea to dose my tea?” I said into the silence, getting a little satisfaction from seeing them jump.

Sunset rose, coming over to greet me. “To be fair,” she said. “You were considering an incredibly stupid idea.” She nodded at the dragon beside me. “Plus, he was the one that misread the label.”

I looked down at the dragon. “You neglected to mention that, Spike,”

The dragon tried to slide behind Sunset, who edged to the side.

“Oh, no,” she said, pushing him away with a wing. “Gotta own up to this one, kid.”

I let him fiddle his claws for a moment before turning back to the research project. “What are you working on?” I asked.

“Thaumaturgic refocus matrices,” Sunshine said, laying her quill down again. “We’re trying to find a matrix that will convert general magic output to fire based spells.”

“Why fire?” I asked.

“It’s the only thing we could find that would work against these things,” Sunset said, glancing over the formula Sunshine had just jotted down. “So far, no luck. It might hold for a single spell, but we can’t figure out how to make it a lasting enchantment.”

I fluffed out my wings before settling down at the table with them.

“Maybe you need two different enchantments,” I said, glancing over her formula. “One to shift the mantic output, one to lock it in the crystal.”

Sunshine lifted some paper over to me. “Have at it, Princess,” she said. “I’m going to see about getting us some food.”

“So, what are you asking us to do?” Starlight asked.

“Cast a fire spell at the target,” I said, levitating a poniquin down the length of the field.

“Twilight, I don’t even know any fire spells,” she said. “Elementally speaking, I’m better at ice spells.”

“I know,” I said, hovering one of the prototype crystals over to her. “Cast it through that.”

“A spell catalyst?” the pink pony asked. She lit up her horn to take the crystal.

I put a hoof on her shoulder and pointed her towards the target. “That way,” I said.

She frowned and then cast a spell on the crystal, frost beginning to cover the surface before a large gout of fire lanced out and struck the mock up of a pony. It began to melt under the fury of fire.

Starlight let up on her spell, the fire trailing off.

“Whoa,” she said, surveying the damage.

“One successful test,” I said, lifting my clipboard up to make some notes. “A full elemental reversal, no less.”

“Twilight,” the Unicorn said. “This is dangerous.”

“It’s just a precaution,” I said. “Cadence wanted a way to supplement the defenses in case the city is attacked.”

The door to the courtyard swung open, a Crystal pony standing in his armor.

“Princess,” he said. “They’re here.”

“So where are these guys?” Dash asked immediately upon seeing me. “I got to see this.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said. “They sound really scary.”

“You have no idea,” Sunset said, walking up and hugging the girls as they came in. Sunshine and I repeated the process before we all sat down to go over the events that had transpired.

When we had finished, Applejack slammed her hooves down on the table.

“This here’s just plain wrong!” she said. “Pullin’ folk from their rest ’n forcin’ em to fight. It ain’t natural.”

“It’s abhorrent,” Rarity said, her face belying the outrage in her voice. “There is simply no reason for it.”

“Where do we sign up?” Rainbow said. “This kinda thing is what we do!”

“You may get your chance sooner than you think, Dash,” I said. “According to the information, the emissary meeting is tomorrow, and she’s not likely to come unprotected. I want you all to help protect Cadence in case things go south.”

“What about you?” Fluttershy asked.

“Sunset and I will be in the wings, preparing containment spells,” I said. “Sunshine will be watching Flurry Heart with Starlight and Trixie just to be safe.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “Fluttershy, would you mind helping there?”

She nodded, the look in her eyes showing me determination.

“Rarity,” Sunset spoke up. “We’d like your help in fashioning some collars for our backup plan.”

She raised a curious eyebrow but nodded, following the amber Alicorn out.

“Back up plan?” Pinkie said. “What’s that all about?”

“Just in case we can’t talk this one down,” I said. “We’ve managed to create a crystal matrix to convert magic spells into fire based spells.”

“Why’d ya do that?” AJ asked.

“Fire is the only way we’ve found data on to prevent the raised from continuing on, but fire spells are difficult to cast, so not many Unicorns have it.” I sighed. “It’s been centuries since we’ve needed battle spells, and I hope we don’t wind up needing them again.”

“D’ya think it’ll go that far?” AJ asked.

“I don’t know, AJ,” I said. “I don’t know.”

Cold wind swept through my mane and ruffled my feathers. I was standing on a mesa, overlooking the Crystal Empire.

“What am I doing here?” I asked the wind.

“Sharing,” a voice came from behind me. I turned and saw Princess Luna standing behind me.

“What do you mean?”

“For this task, my sister and I have tried to see the outcome, but it is dark with clouds of war,” she looked out over the vision before us. “We fear that this may be more difficult than anything you have faced before.”

I nodded. “What do we do?”

“I do not know, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, spreading her wings slightly. “But I sense that this may soon cover Equestria if not stopped in the Crystal Empire. I have tried to see the dreams of those behind this, but they either do not dream or are shielded from me. It is somewhat…disturbing.”

“I agree,” I said. “And this report of resurgence of Neighlin style thaumaturgic circles is maddening. It took me hours to find the book I had and even I couldn’t have replicated this many different uses for them this soon.”

“You may need more resources to combat this,” Luna said. “My sister and I will be commanding the EUP forces, but we will be focusing on our borders in case you fail.”

“I don't like that thought,” I said.

I woke up, something niggling on my mind. I got up and went to Sunset’s room.

“Twilight,” she said, rubbing sleep from her eye. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“We need to get ahold of the girls,” I said.

“So you wake me up?” she grumbled. “AJ is right next door.”

“Not them,” I said, looking behind her to the sleepy Sunshine.

Realization dawned on her face, and she turned to her fiancé.

“How soon?” the Unicorn asked.

“Now.”